{"id":32278,"date":"2014-11-20T15:15:44","date_gmt":"2014-11-20T07:15:44","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/?p=32278"},"modified":"2014-11-20T13:35:00","modified_gmt":"2014-11-20T05:35:00","slug":"manitoba-premier-under-fire-over-attendance-at-nhl-game-denies-freebie","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/2014\/11\/20\/manitoba-premier-under-fire-over-attendance-at-nhl-game-denies-freebie\/","title":{"rendered":"Manitoba premier under fire over attendance at NHL game, denies freebie"},"content":{"rendered":"
\"Manitoba<\/a>
Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger. US Mission Canada<\/a> \/ Flickr.<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

WINNIPEG\u2014Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger is facing questions for attending a National Hockey League game as a guest of a Saskatchewan politician and not telling a legislature committee about it.<\/p>\n

Several cabinet ministers were criticized in 2012 for accepting free tickets to Winnipeg Jets games, but Selinger told the legislature at the time he had always paid for his tickets.<\/p>\n

Selinger released a list of ministers who had accepted freebies to watch the team, which had been relocated from Atlanta. His name was not on the list.<\/p>\n

Now, Selinger has admitted to attending a Jets game on Dec. 29, 2011 with Saskatchewan Party MLA Ken Cheveldayoff and not paying for the ticket directly.<\/p>\n

Selinger declined Tuesday to answer questions about the ticket. He sent an emailed statement saying he offered to pay, but Cheveldayoff refused, so the premier made a donation to a non-profit housing organization.<\/p>\n

That was the same as paying for the ticket, he suggested.<\/p>\n

Later Tuesday, the premier\u2019s spokesman, Paul McKie, sent out a \u201cclarification\u201d from Selinger saying he made a $300 donation to Friends Housing Inc. on Feb. 7, 2012.<\/p>\n

\u201cEvery Jets game I\u2019ve attended I paid for, including the 2011 game in question, which I paid for by donation,\u201d the statement said. \u201cI also purchased season tickets directly from the Jets.\u201d<\/p>\n

In a legislative committee meeting in May 2012, Selinger was asked directly by then-Tory Leader Hugh McFadyen whether he had \u201cany tickets provided to him that he didn\u2019t pay for personally?\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cNo,\u201d said Selinger, according to the official transcript.<\/p>\n

\u201cSo did the premier directly purchase his tickets, then, from the Jets box office?\u201d McFadyen asked.<\/p>\n

\u201cI directly purchased my own tickets, yes,\u201d Selinger responded.<\/p>\n

\u201cAnd were they purchased directly from the Jets organization?\u201d McFadyen continued.<\/p>\n

\u201cYes,\u201d Selinger said.<\/p>\n

The day after the exchange, the government set out a policy banning the acceptance of tickets to professional sports events.<\/p>\n

Opposition Leader Brian Pallister stopped short of saying Selinger misled the legislature, but he did say he plans to review the transcript of Selinger\u2019s comments in the legislature to see whether he was telling the truth.<\/p>\n

Pallister said he\u2019s been offered free NHL tickets before, among other gifts, but has declined. He couldn\u2019t say if anyone in his caucus accepted tickets before he became leader in July 2012, but Pallister said the rules are clear now.<\/p>\n

\u201cThey do not take gifts or tickets of any kind. That\u2019s the rule,\u201d he said Wednesday. \u201cIt\u2019s not a question of taking them and then later donating money.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

WINNIPEG\u2014Manitoba Premier Greg Selinger is facing questions for attending a National Hockey League game as a guest of a Saskatchewan …<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":44,"featured_media":32280,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[18,1145],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-32278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-news-ca","category-headline","mauthors-the-canadian-press"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/44"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=32278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/32278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/32280"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=32278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=32278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/canadianinquirer.net\/v1\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=32278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}